The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a cheese or milk product by molding.
There exist various methods that are used for making cheese or milk products.
One of those methods consists in casting hot melted cheese into molds of aluminum or injected or thermoformed plastic. Under such circumstances, the mold also serves as final packaging for the consumer. That method does not enable the product to be coated after it has been cast.
There also exist methods of molding milk products or cheese in recyclable molds, in which case the products ready for unmolding need to be sufficiently firm to enable them to be extracted by mechanical pressure or by vibration, or indeed by blowing air. Those methods generally require the use of unmolding agents.
In order to manufacture a product which is provided with a stick for holding it, suggestions have been made to cast the hot melt into a thermoformed plastics shell having the stick placed therein prior to casting. Furthermore, since sealing is provided by the stick coming into contact with the shell, it is necessary for the stick to be very simple and cylindrical or prismatic in shape. In addition, as mentioned above, in that kind of technique, the product cannot be coated.
Suggestions have also been made to make products by extrusion with a stick being put into place before or after slicing. That method is suitable only for making products having a two-dimensional shape that is the result of the profile of the die used and of the slicing system.
There also exist shaping methods in which the material is pressed into a mold, after which the product is ejected by mechanical pressure or by blowing air.
That method is usable only for milk or cheese products having texture that is strongly cohesive and elastic, and it is unsuitable for textures having little cohesion (creamy or crumbly).
The present invention seeks to provide a method enabling products to be made with a desired shape, and which is particularly suitable for textures that are not mechanically strong (creamy or crumbly) e.g. a processed cheese of fondant texture.
To this end, the invention provides a method of molding a cheese or milk product, wherein the method comprises:
a) casting a melt of said product into at least one mold;
b) cooling to cause at least a peripheral layer of the melt to congeal;
c) reheating the mold(s) to soften a surface region of said peripheral layer; and
d) unmolding the product.
Advantageously, the method includes a step, after casting a) and preferably during cooling b), of putting into place a stick for holding the product.
After unmolding d), the method can include coating e) the product.
In particular, this coating can be performed by dipping, in particular by dipping in a bath whose temperature lies in the range 20xc2x0 C. to 90xc2x0 C.
It is particularly advantageous for the coating of the product to be accompanied by projecting solid pieces of size lying in the range 1 mm to 4 mm, for example, which pieces become fixed to the coating.
By way of example, the solid pieces may be selected from dried fruit and/or dehydrated fruit and/or vegetables and/or spices and/or flavoring.
Preferably, the coating is made out of a material, in particular one that gels or is solid when cold, which does not adhere to a material for packaging the product, such as a plastics tray.
The method may implement a step after the unmolding d), and where appropriate after the coating e), of packaging the product under a modified atmosphere.
The casting may be performed into at least one recyclable mold, and at a temperature of at least 50xc2x0 C.
Said cooling b) may be performed in a brine whose temperature lies in the range xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C. to xe2x88x9240xc2x0 C.
The cooling b) may be performed in such a manner that the temperature of the product, at least in said congealed peripheral layer, lies the range xe2x88x924xc2x0 C. to xe2x88x9220xc2x0 C.
The reheating c) may be performed by dipping in water at a temperature lying in the range 15xc2x0 C. to 60xc2x0 C.
During unmolding, the temperature of the product, at least in the portion of the peripheral layer that remains congealed, advantageously lies in the range xe2x88x922xc2x0 C. to xe2x88x9218xc2x0 C.
In a preferred implementation, the casting a) is performed in a plurality of stages so as to make a product built up of a plurality of layers and/or a product having a filling.
The invention also provides a soft cheese or milk product made by molding and presenting a dry extract content lying in the range 25% to 50%, fat content in the dry extract lying in the range 30% to 75% by weight, and a pH preferably lying in the range 4.8 to 6, which product may include a coating that imparts mechanical strength and/or non-stick properties to the product when in packaging such as a tray.